Graduate retention: meeting local skills needs

​Universities play a key role in developing the UK government's industrial strategy b​y educating students to meet the higher-level skills needs of a modern economy. ​Increased retention of graduates in the regions in which they studied could ease current skills shortages across the UK,​ and drive local growth and productivity.​

The UK is facing a shortage of higher-level skills, with a deficit of graduates relative to the number of jobs requiring them.​ Regional rates of graduate​ retention vary significantly and are influenced by a range of social and economic factors. This report provides a detailed evaluation of local graduate retention, and through case studies demonstrates recent success in improving it, before highlighting what the government, business and universities could do together to further increase local rates of retention.​​​

The data analysis​ undertaken for this report finds significant regional variation in rates of graduate retention, including differences ​by subject studied and employment industry entered into.​ The data also shows the level of regional high-skilled hard-to-fill and skills shortage vacancies reported in 2015, that could benefit from increased graduate retention.

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Shorter and more flexible courses could encourage more people of all ages to improve their skills and life chances at university. This is one of the main findings of a project set up by Universities UK (UUK) and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI)